Marketing strategies in business-to-business advertisements for oral nicotine products

Although the popularity of oral nicotine products (ONPs) such as ZYN and On! is growing globally, there is limited research on their marketing and advertising. This report describes recent ONP marketing communication to retailers. Promotion to retailers can provide insight into new product flavours and styles, as well as future marketing strategies targeting consumers.

We obtained all unique ONP print and online advertisements (ads) (N=50) targeted towards US businesses between January 2016 and August 2022 from Vivvix (formerly Numerator Ad Intel). Two independent reviewers coded for type of ONP, brand, nicotine strength(s), flavour(s), slogan(s), claim(s) and frequency of each component.

Most ads featured nicotine pouches alone (52%), while 22% featured a mix of ONPs including pouches, tablets and lozenges. By brand, Rogue constituted 36% of ads, followed by Zyn and On! (16% each). Most (82%) ads featured at least one cooling flavour and 48% displayed at least one fruit flavour. Wintergreen flavour appeared most frequently (48%). Most (72%) ads contained a slogan, which frequently highlighted convenience of use (eg, 'Chew on this Anywhere… Anytime'), bypassing current restrictions on other tobacco and nicotine products use (eg, 'Laughs at no smoking signs') and highlighting big profit margins from sales of ONPs for retailers (eg, 'small pouches big margins').

This analysis provides insight into tobacco companies' strategies for increasing ONP endorsement among retailers. Strategies include appealing to profitability, emphasising convenience of product use and primarily promoting non-tobacco flavours. These findings highlight new trends in ONP products and marketing tactics and identify important areas to monitor to inform tobacco marketing regulations.